Archives for May 2016

Breaking news this morning, as we learn that Westar Energy is being sold. Great Plains Energy is announcing a buyout of Westar for more than 12-billion dollars. Great Plains is also the parent company of Kansas City Power and Light. The Westar deal involves cash and stock. Westar currently has more than 1.5 million electric customers in Kansas.

Commotion at the East Walmart on Monday, as a customer held a suspected thief at gunpoint. A man reprtedly snatched the purse of a shopper who was loading her groceris into her car in the parking lot. Other customers witnessed the incident and chansed down the thief, holding him at gunpoint until police arrived.

Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle wants the chamber to vote next week on a resolution condemning a recent federal directive on accommodating transgender students in public schools. Wagle’s office disclosed Thursday that she is drafting a nonbinding Senate resolution to be considered next week, when lawmakers have a brief ceremony scheduled to formally adjourn their annual session. Wagle sent an email to GOP senators Wednesday evening.

A federal indictment in southern Kansas accuses 13 people of roles in an identity-theft ring involving more than $3.5 million of thievery. The 50-count indictment unsealed in Wichita alleges the conspirators divided up the work of stealing from mailboxes, forging identification documents, obtaining fraudulent credit cards and shopping with stolen identities. Prosecutors said items bought with ill-gotten gains from the scheme included a $43,500 Jaguar car and a $62,000 Dodge Challenger Hellcat.

Two longtime television news anchors signed off their careers in Wichita last night. Cindy Klose of KWCH channel 12 and Susan Peters of KAKE Channel 10 both anchored their last newscasts yesterday. Peters says she is retiring to focus more on helping foster children find forever homes. Klose, meanwhile, says she is retiring just because it feels right.

A federal judge has refused to stay an order requiring Kansas to add to voting rolls for federal elections thousands of Kansans who did not provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote at motor vehicle offices. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson on Wednesday instead extended for an additional two weeks the temporary stay of her order.

A top Kansas legislator is drafting a letter to federal officials promising resistance to a recent directive on accommodating transgender students in public schools. House Speaker Ray Merrick circulated a copy Wednesday to fellow House members to give them a chance to sign on. The letter questions whether President Barack Obama’s administration can direct public schools to allow transgender students to use facilities associated with their gender identities.

An electrical outage caused an airplane to return to Wichita’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport on Tuesday. Mesa Air Flight 5807 took off from Wichita at 7:00 last night headed from Dallas, but the crew reported an emergency shortly after takeoff. The flight landed safely back in Wichita at 7:30 last night. Nobody was injured. It’s not known what caused the electrical outage.

A Hillsboro man has been indicted in connection to what prosecutors say was a $7.9 million oil and gas scheme. Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said David Lawson was indicted on one count of wire fraud Tuesday. Prosecutors say Lawson made a deal through his company to sell 90 barrels a day of crude oil to another company. Prosecutors say Lawson did not provide crude oil, but instead provided raw gas oil. Raw gas oil is a mixture of various refined petroleum products with a lesser commercial value.

Agribusiness giant Cargill says it is keeping several of its operations in Wichita, Kansas, and is searching for a new facility to house them. Cargill corporate vice president Brian Sikes made the announcement Tuesday during a news conference with Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and other officials.